Cow Palace will end gun shows after 2019

1of5The governing board of the Cow Palace voted not to host gun shows after 2019, when the exhibitor’s contract expires.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2016

2of5Anti-gun show protesters work on signs outside the Cow Palace in April 2018.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

3of5Attendees approach the ticket office for the Crossroads of the West gun show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif. on Saturday, April 14, 2018.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2018

4of5A vendor sells magazines for pistols at the Crossroads of the West gun show at the Cow Palace in Daly City in January 2016.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

5of5Ammunition is displayed at a vendor's booth at the Crossroads of the West gun show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

The Cow Palace will no longer host gun shows after this year, but the move has not quelled a legislative effort to replace the leadership at the arena and potentially redevelop the property.

Following years of community activism against the gun shows, which bring thousands of buyers and sellers to the Daly City event center five times a year, the governing board of the Cow Palace voted Tuesday not to hold shows after 2019, when a contract with the exhibitor Crossroads of the West expires.

Lori Marshall, chief executive officer of the Cow Palace, said in a statement that the decision was “mindful, although not necessarily governed by,” bans on gun shows in surrounding cities and counties.

“This action in no way shall be taken to indicate that the board has found there to be any improprieties on the part of the promoters of past gun shows,” she said.

Gun-control groups ramped up their protests against the events after the February 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that killed 14 students and three staffers.

Activists argue that the gun shows glorify violence for children, who receive free admission until age 12, and that state agencies should not “facilitate or profit from the proliferation of firearms.”

The Cow Palace, which was built in 1941 to provide a pavilion for livestock exhibitions, operates under the California Department of Food and Agriculture and its board is appointed by the governor. All seven current directors were named to the panel by former Gov. Jerry Brown.

Anti-violence demonstrators create signs in the parking lot at the Cow Palace before a gun show in April 2018. Gun-control groups ramped up their protests after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting in February that year.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2018

The Cow Palace board has also been under pressure because of a bill to prohibit gun and ammunition sales at the venue, which is moving through the Legislature this session. Similar proposals have been vetoed three times in the past decade, but Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed a ban in 2007, when he was mayor of San Francisco.

Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, still intends to pursue his measure, SB281, which would also transfer control of the Cow Palace to a joint powers authority consisting of San Francisco, Daly City and San Mateo County. The new agency would be charged with redeveloping the 68-acre property for housing and commercial space, though it could leave the arena in operation.

Victor Ruiz-Cornejo, a spokesman for Wiener, said it was important to replace the board to prevent future officials from going back on the ban.

“It shouldn’t take this kind of action to get the board to listen to the local community,” Ruiz-Cornejo said.

Alexei Koseff is a state Capitol reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, covering Gov. Gavin Newsom and California government from Sacramento. He previously spent five years in the Capitol bureau of The Sacramento Bee, reporting on everything from international recruiting by the University of California to a ride service for state senators too drunk to drive. Alexei is a Bay Area native and attended Stanford University. He speaks fluent Spanish.